Studs Up – GW23

That’s better! 70’s and 80’s always feel more satisfying. We even had a few nudge up to the 100 point holy grail… It also sounds like most of us managed to put the Costa problem behind us, and may have actually done better without him? All of my midweek picks produced with Aguero, Giroud and Remy all getting in amongst it. Aguero only gave us a 5, but with him it’s more long term than short term gains…

* Don’t forget about me *

Likes

Asian Cup. What a game!!! Credit goes to both teams but South Korea have to be hurting. They had the better of most of it and there shouldn’t have been complaints if they came out on top. Credit also goes to Gaffer Ange for sticking to his philosophies under incredible and often unreasonable pressure over recent months. Also in Luongo, Australia have an heir apparent to the great Timmy Cahill and is surely going to attract attention from bigger clubs sooner rather than later. Took his goal very well, and generally looked clean and industrious throughout. Attentions turn to World Cups now and with a young Aussie team looking the goods, the only way is up!

Bouncebackability. How’s this for a record? Since the start of 2013, every time Daniel Sturridge has had an extended period of time away from the EPL, he has scored in his first game back… Jan 13 2013 when at Chelsea, he missed over a month with a hammy and scores against United. In his first game of last season he scored against Stoke. Jan 12 2014 after missing 6 weeks with that ankle injury, he scores against Stoke in his first game back. First game of this season, he scores of course. And then with the latest injury nightmare over, he’s back and he scores yet again! So how do we use this information? Well we’re gonna have to wait for him to get injured again… Or next season. Just try and remember this!

Hull. They haven’t quite hit rock bottom yet, they’ve only lost 3 in a row, but it’s starting to look pretty damn ordinary. They barely looked like scoring at home to Newcastle never mind winning. I’ll repeat that, AT HOME TO NEWCASTLE… This is the same Newcastle team that have conceded a goal in every one of their last 12 games. They conceded 3 at home to Burnley! They don’t do defence. Never really have to be honest. Hull played their normal 2 strikers up top, apparently because I didn’t see much of them. But where they really went wrong was moving to 4 at the back, and having the defensively inept Elmohamady and Robertson as full backs as opposed to the wing back roles they suit. The pair were continually found out of position by the lightning fast counter attacks Newcastle were able to rain down on them time after time. Hull should revert back to the 3 at the back this week, but it’s against City so it might not even matter… After that though will be a season defining run of 5 games that they should be able to get points from. If they don’t, it’s curtains because their run home is atrocious.

Deadline. The transfer deadline is upon us and cue a hectic few days! This is the time of the season supporters of middle to lower clubs dread, and the ones of the bigger clubs take the opportunity to talk absolute bollocks. There’ll be a big purchase, there always is… I just hope it’s not involving any Everton players!

Ryan Bennett Award – Massadio Haidara. Newcastle don’t do defence. He was one of the beneficiaries of the change in formation by Hull with their wingers not doing too much chasing back and Elmohamady not knowing how to tackle (harsh?). Won’t get this much freedom too many times.

Jamie Vardy Award – Jermaine Defoe. Welcome back Jermaine! There’ll be a lot of FPL’ers who will consider Defoe but to be honest he’s not been a massive goal scorer over recent seasons so you’ll be picking him on luck…

How did we all go post – Costa? And are we actually thinking about bring him back again this season? I don’t think I will if I’m honest. That 3-4m I banked will be used to strengthen everwhere else, or a Sturridge might find his way in…

52 comments on “Studs Up – GW23”

I may be languishing in 60,192 overall however I’m proud to say I remain in the Fantasy Cup after Gameweek 23. With less than 1% of teams remaining I only need to overcome 32,768 more teams and the prize is mine.

The Costa>Sturridge shuffle could prove very popular but I’m not sure I can bear to part with Eden Hazard (for Fab) to make the switch work.

Plusses: I moved Costa>Giroud AND had the nads to captain Giroud (which paid off for once). The flow on effect of all this being that I survived the eliminator by one point!!!

Negatives: First week all season I have had a Sthpton DEF (Bertrand)… WTF. Also, not a huge week for me with a solid (but not spectacular) 62; I’d hoped for more after using my January WC but hey, I can’t really complain.

As a fan, I am desperately hoping we (the Toffees) don’t let anyone else go in this window, we are struggling for depth as is and if we lose a Mirallas, we could be left miles up the proverbial creek without a paddle in both comps. One more loanee would be nice?

Finally, I am sure there will be much discussion on it this week but we need to have a chat and look at the Arsenal war machine – as you said, it’s warming up and there may be some beneift to a few of the POD MID options as well as Giroud or Welbeck. Its shaping up to be a great last half of the season!

Yeah agree it will be popular but shouldn’t be done if it ruins team balance. I’m more likely to keep Giroud and get Sterling in! He might be the one to benefit most out of Sturridge’s return.

I’d be ok with Mirallas leaving tbh. He had is chance to repay us after “the incident” and neither apologised/explained himself, or put in a shift on Saturday. I get the feeling he’s shied away from it completley and went into his shell. Baines was back on freekicks if you noticed haha. We’d need a replacement though, I’d even give Aaron Lennon a chance to rebuild his reputation. Then Januzaj on loan would finish off the squad nicely!

Arsenal definitely does need some time… It’s so hard though with the incredible midfield depth they have to take advantage of it with some sort of confidence. I’d think Welbeck starts from the bench from now on with the likes of Sanchez, Cazorla, Walcott, Ozil and Ramsey too playing behind Giroud?

I Made cazorla skipper which was nice. Saved me as I had Costa and Sanchez on the pine as I had traded early and then Gardos couldn’t get a game. Had Hutton, Boyd and wisdom come of the bench. Finished with 81 which was nice!

The arsenal conundrum is a big one. So many fantasy relevant players if they have their full strength team on the park. Walcott could be a real POD and ozil was back to his best and with those blokes feeding giroud he becomes relevant again.

Sterling almost seems like a must have at the moment as well. so many points in the mids that it almost seems like a 3-5-2 formation is the way to go

Wildcard week for me. I’ve done pretty well this season so far but I’m confused as hell. Which one of Eriksen, Cazorla or Sterling is a good pick long term? Can we count on Sturridge now? Who’s nailed on in Arsenal defense?…damn so many questions 🙂

I doubt you’re the only confused one!!! I’ve got those four in my sights too… Everton v Liverpool this weekend however so I’m going to steer clear of all Liverpool players. I would swerve Arsenal defenders this week with Spurs their opposition, those games tend to have a few goals in them.

Looks pretty good to me! If I was being picky I do prefer Sterling just a little more than Cazorla but that’s just a personal opinion. And queries over Ospina’s longevity in the team but you can easily sideways to a Foster or Pantilimon.

Ahah spot on Baysie, Sterling or Cazorla is my main question right now. Having Sturridge in the team has made me go for the latter…but my team may change about 150000 times by the next GW 🙂 Ospina’s longevity is also a source of concern but as you said, I can easily trade him for someone in that price range

No worries! Thanks mate. Was just looking at needing to trade Bertrand as a way to get old mate Sterling into my side before everyone else jumps on. But, it looks more and more like I’m already, on all the decent cheap defenders.